Charter for Compassion Peace Newsletter, September 2014

Charter for Compassion Peace Newsletter, September 2014

Join Our Peace Conference Call on September 16th. We hope all who are interested will join us. The call will be 90 minutes long, and you need to register for the call with Maestro Conference. We have the capacity to have up to 500 comfortably on the call. Before you go to Maestro, you'll want to check to see what time the call will happen in your part of the world. Consult the World Clock—Time Converter. Start with Seattle at 6:00 AM and enter your city in the field and click on convert.

If you click on this link you'll be taken to Maestro where you'll be asked to register and given a pin number. On the date of the Conference, call in using the number you were given and enter your access code.

If you want to learn more about calling into Maestro from outside the U.S. click here and see how you can download MC Dialer or receive special instructions for using SKYPE.

Terry Greene from September 11th Families for a Peaceful Tomorrow

"My brother, Donald Freeman Greene, was among the passengers aboard United Flight 93 that crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania after passengers retook control of the flight. Don was a licensed pilot and engineer, who would have known immediately that the plane had been redirected from its destination and he would have been a great aide in flying the plane if it had been possible to do so. I am extremely proud of my brother. He was a kind, intelligent, strong, caring man."

Terry joined Peaceful tomorrows after realizing that the evidence was irrefutable that the wars launched in Iraq and Afghanistan were fueling, not stemming terrorism and creating unimaginable civilian casualties that dwarfed our own terrible losses on September 11th.

Through her involvement in Peaceful Tomorrows, Terry helped organize the International Network for Peace in Garrison, New York, with representatives from genocides in Rwanda and the Sudan; violent oppression in South Africa; parents who lost children in the ceaseless conflict between Israel and Palestine; families of the school hostage killings in Beslan, Russia, the Madrid train bombing and Indonesian terror attacks; and survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear weapons.

Terry joined “Murder Victims Families for Human Rights” founded by Bud Welch, a parent of a daughter killed in the Oklahoma City bombing. Bud had formed Murder Victims Families for Human Rights when he realized that killing the perpetrator, Timothy McVeigh, would not bring him any relief and would only serve as another form of violence fueled by hate. Through this affiliation she testified against instatement of the death penalty in Massachusetts.

Her former work as an educator on issues regarding the death penalty for the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee and as a staff member for the Aid to Incarcerated Mothers Program made her see the importance of effectively preventing violence on all fronts, whether resulting from crime or terror or war. She questions responses which serve as revenge but do nothing to break cycles of violence which can only be accomplished by addressing the root causes.

A Recommendation: Waging Peace

David Hartsough knows how to get in the way. He has used his body to block Navy ships headed for Vietnam and trains loaded with munitions on their way to El Salvador and Nicaragua. He has crossed borders to meet “the enemy” in East Berlin, Castro’s Cuba, and present-day Iran. He has marched with mothers confronting a violent regime in Guatemala and stood with refugees threatened by death squads in the Philippines. Hartsough’s stories inspire, educate, and encourage readers to find ways to work for a more just and peaceful world. Inspired by the examples of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., Hartsough has spent his life experimenting with the power of active nonviolence. Engaging stories on every page provide a peace activist’s eyewitness account of many of the major historical events of the past 60 years, including the Civil Rights and anti–Vietnam War movements in the United States as well as the little-known but equally significant nonviolent efforts in the Soviet Union, Kosovo, Palestine, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines. Waging Peace is a testament to the difference one person can make; however, it is more than one man’s memoir: it shows how this struggle is waged all over the world by ordinary people committed to ending the spiral of violence and war.

“Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.” “When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over. He does not need punishment; he needs help. That's the message he is sending.” “To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.”

“Because you are alive, everything is possible.” “Waking up this morning, I smile. Twenty-four brand new hours are before me. I vow to live fully in each moment and to look at all beings with eyes of compassion.” “People usually consider walking on water or in thin air a miracle. But I think the real miracle is not to walk either on water or in thin air, but to walk on earth. Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize: a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child - our own two eyes. All is a miracle.” “Smile, breathe and go slowly.”

The art poster here is by Debi Strong. She is a partner to the Charter and is offering signed posters for $25 plus handling. She is donating a portion of the sale to the Charter. Contact Debi directly for orders. If you want to see a larger image of the poster go to our Reports and Documents section on our website.

*The Lebanese war has influenced many of Ghada Jamal’s paintings. But with her abstract landscape series Traces and Remains show that there still is light and peace in the country despite the traces and remains of war.

Ghada Jamal was born in 1955 in Beirut and currently teaches at the American University of Beirut and the Notre Dame University in Beirut, Lebanon. After studying Fine Arts at the Beirut University College (now Lebanese American University), Jamal moved to the United States during the Lebanese civil war to pursue a Masters in painting from California State University, Long Beach.

Today Ghada Jamal still lives and paints in Lebanon. In her recent artwork, the landscapes are suffused with light and color, subtracted from people, politics, urbanization, and the development and destruction of contemporary life. As prosaic and sublime as that may sound, Jamal's return has not come easily, nor does it necessarily signify a reconciliation with her country.

Please become a Member of the Charter for Compassion. Step forward to support the compassion movement materially -- with your money, your time, your connections, your special areas of expertise, and your high expectations.

Please become a Member of the Charter for Compassion. Step forward to support the compassion movement materially -- with your money, your time, your connections, your special areas of expertise, and your high expectations.

About Us

Charter for Compassion provides an umbrella for people to engage in collaborative partnerships worldwide. Our mission is to bring to life the principles articulated in the Charter for Compassion through concrete, practical action in a myriad of sectors.